{"product_id":"higher-gossip-essays-and-criticism-paperback","title":"Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJohn Updike\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eChristopher Carduff\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of the most gifted American writers of the twentieth century--and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series--delivers the intimate, generous, insightful, and beautifully written collection he was compiling when he died.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis collection of miscellaneous prose opens with a self-portrait of the writer in winter, a Prospero who, though he fears his most dazzling performances are behind him, reveals himself in every sentence to be in deep conversation with the sources of his magic. It concludes with a moving meditation on a modern world robbed of imagination--a world without religion, without art--and on the difficulties of faith in a disbelieving age. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn between are previously uncollected stories and poems, a pageant of scenes from seventeenth-century Massachusetts, five late \"golf dreams,\" and several of Updike's commentaries on his own work. At the heart of the book are his matchless reviews--of John Cheever, Ann Patchett, Toni Morrison, William Maxwell, John le Carré, and essays on Aimee Semple McPherson, Max Factor, and Albert Einstein, among others. Also included are two decades of art criticism--on Chardin, El Greco, Blake, Turner, Van Gogh, Max Ernest, and more. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUpdike's criticism is gossip of the highest order, delivered in an intimate and generous voice.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Updike\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal. In 2007 he received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Updike died in January 2009. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eChristopher Carduff\u003c\/b\u003e, the editor of this volume, is a member of the staff of The Library of America.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 528\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.08 x 9.39 x 6.38 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 18, 2012\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46368277233799,"sku":"9780812983685","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/bNfvP27stj9780812983685.webp?v=1793325048","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/higher-gossip-essays-and-criticism-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}